Mrs Tiggy-Winkle or tour de farce? The mystery of the eternally naughty Miriam Margolyes

When she appeared on The Graham Norton Show in 2021 to promote her autobiography This Much Is True, Miriam Margolyes claimed to have written it because she had been “paid an enormous amount of money”. Her fans will find her as incorrigible as ever: “Just because I’ve written my autobiography – becoming more famous than I have any right to be – doesn’t mean I’m dead.” Margolyes’s come-on to her audience begins with her Contents: chapter headings include “When did you have your first f***?”; “Always Talk About Sex”; “Breast is Best”; “Always be a C***”; “The Joy of Bottoms”. She claims to “be totally truthful.” So, having played in Gerald Scarfe’s Ubu Roi as a life-sized vulva, she merrily announces on the third page, “Once a c***, always a c***.” Oh Miriam! Look closer, however, and you might be surprised at what you find, a shy, vulnerable Jewish girl who is not ashamed to declare: “if you prick me, do I not bleed?” Throughout Oh Miriam!, Margolyes hides behind feisty gossip, outrageous opinions and flurries of thespian bitching, seasoned with f***s and c***s. This is the “Miriam” she’s nurtured to survive.